Wharton/San Francisco

By Greg Johnson

Opening this month, the new Wharton/San Francisco at Hills Plaza offers digital high-definition classrooms, group study rooms, and sweeping views of the San Francisco Bay.

The relocation of the school to Hills Plaza, part of a broader strategic emphasis by Wharton to expand its presence on the West Coast, enables Penn to make use of cutting-edge educational technologies to foster a highly interactive curricular environment—connecting Wharton/San Francisco with Wharton’s campus classrooms in Huntsman Hall.

The move to Hills Plaza coincides with a school-wide celebration of the 10-year anniversary of Wharton/San Francisco.

In this edition of By The Numbers, we go west with Wharton/San Francisco.

1996

Year in which Wharton opened a San Francisco-based office to conduct a variety of activities, including corporate outreach, interviews with potential students, and the creation of a stronger alumni network.

2001

Year in which Wharton established the San Francisco campus, creating a permanent academic location in the heart of the city’s business and financial district.

65

Graduates in the inaugural class for the MBA Program for Executives in San Francisco.

700-plus

Number of MBA degrees awarded by Wharton’s West Coast campus since the program’s inception.

12,000

Wharton graduates who live on the West Coast.

30

The new campus at Hills Plaza is 30 percent larger than Wharton/San Francisco’s former Folger Building home.

90-plus

New admits enrolled in Wharton/San Francisco’s MBA for Executives Program each year.

Penn Current Express

Quoted Recently

“As we know from the research, the performance of a large firm is due primarily to things outside the control of the top executive. … We call that luck. Executives freely admit this—when they encounter bad luck.”

—J. Scott Armstrong, a professor of marketing at the Wharton School, on how executives can influence a company’s value. Limited research on the topic has mostly found that broader market forces often have a bigger impact on a company’s success than an executive’s actions. (The New York Times, Feb. 7, 2015)